Military pilots are often required to intercept fast moving enemy vehicles, such as cars and trucks driving through a war zone or a secured area. Typically, these cars or trucks are traveling at speeds up to about 60 miles per hour. Such fast-moving targets are difficult for a pilot of a fighter jet to destroy. Unfortunately, providing pilot training and measuring weapon accuracy for such targets is difficult because of a lack of adequate low-cost practice targets. Currently, at least some U.S. Air Force bases use troop carriers, which have most of their parts removed so that nearly all that remains is the frame, wheels and body. These troop carriers are towed using a radio-controlled tank having a top speed of about 20 miles per hour, which is much lower than the speeds actually encountered with real enemy vehicles. Furthermore, it is difficult to confirm whether a troop carrier target has been hit during training. Indeed, even if the wheels of the troop carrier are blown off, the tank will continue to drag the target making it difficult for the pilot to determine whether the attack has been successful.
In order to provide a faster moving practice target, autonomous target vehicles have been produced. These autonomous target vehicles are capable of reaching speeds well over 60 miles per hour and may be controlled remotely, without the need to be towed. Such autonomous vehicles are typically constructed from conventional cars or trucks that are modified to make the vehicle completely autonomous. However, such autonomous vehicles are typically limited to well-prepared roads, which are uncommon in most pilot training ranges. Furthermore, the cost of even a well-used conventional car or truck plus the cost of the modifications to make the vehicle autonomous make such vehicles very expensive. Some have proposed armoring the critical components of such autonomous vehicles to protect those components from damage so that the components may be removed and possibly re-used after partial destruction. Such armoring not only adds to the cost of the vehicle, it is only protective for indirect hits. Indeed, many of these components will still be destroyed beyond re-use upon a direct hit.